John Ranalletta Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 I called an insurance agent from whom I purchased policies for my kids years ago. I called to give him my kids' mailing addresses. When I told him my son lived in Linden, NJ, he asked, "Is that in the United States?" Oh my! Link to comment
upflying Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 No doubt your agent is a product of our public school system. Link to comment
smiller Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Oh I don't know... when I lived in NJ I found myself asking the same question... Link to comment
Boone60 Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 No doubt your agent is a product of our public school system. Private school was the absolute worst two years of my educational experiences. Link to comment
Joel Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Not quite the same, but a similar Idiocracy moment: I called Avis looking for the closest car rental location when the Team Schnauzer Tour Bus broke down in Cahokia, IL. Agent: What's the closest town? (As if Cahokia wasn't one. Well, it isn't much of one.) Me: East St. Louis. Agent: What? Me: East St. Louis. Agent: In Illinois? Me: Yes. Agent: Sir, St. Louis is not in Illinois. Me: Right. I'm near East St. Louis. Agent: But you said you're in Illinois. Me: Yes, I am. Agent: Sir, I just told you, St. Louis is not in Illinois. Me: Do you have a map handy? Agent: Yes. Me: Can you find St. Louis on it? Agent: Wait a minute ... (long pause punctuated by sound of paper rustling) Me: Its kinda near the middle of the country. Agent: OK, right, got it. Me: Do you see the Mississippi River? Agent: Yes. Me: So, if you were in St. Louis and you crossed the Mississippi into Illinois, where would you be? Agent: Huh? At that point, you couldn't convince me Avis was trying harder. I ended up hitching a ride to the nearest MetroLink station in East St. Louis (pretty fly for a white guy) and riding the train to Lambert-StL to rent a car. From Hertz. Then, last month, I had a trademark examiner ask in an office action for a translation of all foreign wording used in the mark that was the subject of the application. The mark consisted of a single word, in English. Not a particularly uncommon word, either. Link to comment
RightSpin Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 No doubt your agent is a product of our public school system. Private school was the absolute worst two years of my educational experiences. Same here. Link to comment
John Ranalletta Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 No doubt your agent is a product of our public school system. Private school was the absolute worst two years of my educational experiences. Same here. He said "private" school, not "reform" school. Link to comment
Ken H. Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Well here’s my latest similar experience – Been trying to get my US bank to change my address on their records to our Canadian one for months now to no avail. In the most recent email I got back to them (in reply to an email I sent them that included our Canada address) they said I should use their online banking change of address page, except in the case of non-US addresses, in which case I need to email them. Huh? Isn’t that what I just did? What part of “Edmonton, Alberta, Canada” do they think isn’t a non-US address? Link to comment
DavidEBSmith Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 "Is that in the United States?" New Mexico Magazine has a monthly column about people who think New Mexico is a foreign country. Although if you've ever been there . . . Come to think of it, I've been to New Jersey, and I'm not too sure about them, either. Link to comment
John Ranalletta Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 Their online zip code widget doesn't handle alpha characters. What's up with that anyway? Link to comment
tallman Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Years ago we got CBC on the big dish. One of the humorous shows (This Hour Has 20 Minutes, perhaps) had a frequent highlight called "Talking with Americans". A real hoot. Reporter would ask Americans various questions, that they should have some insight on due to geographical location and/or background. One of my favorites was the 5 profs from Yale's Political Science dept. who railed on and on when asked about their thought regarding the mayor of Toronto re-opening the Polar Bear hunting season in the city limits. They never got that it was a joke. Second favorite was a group of Arkansasians who were asked about how they felt now that Congress was adding Bill Clinton to Mt. Rushmore. Oh, my! We truly are a nation that doesn't know where we are, how we got here, or where we are going. Even if we did, I don't know that you can get there from here, unless you take the Antelope Freeway. Link to comment
upflying Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Here is some video on the topic. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/142898/ignorant_americans/ Link to comment
Ken H. Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Their online zip code widget doesn't handle alpha characters. What's up with that anyway? Tell me about it. I manage all my mother’s affairs (now from here) including her Medicare. The state of Iowa has told me they have no way what so ever to send mail (such as her monthly benefits report) to Canada. They say it’s just plain is not possible. Some agencies/businesses get around it by putting the alpha-numeric postal code somewhere in an address line field “Address 2” and 00000 the US postal code field, but they said not even that is not possible. And they don’t have any type of online reporting. Shish. Link to comment
Ken H. Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Oh well, if it’s any consolation, in a recent poll 46% of Canadians named Stephen Harper as Canada’s head of state. (It’s still Queen Elizabeth. Harper is the Prime Minister.) Link to comment
John Ranalletta Posted January 10, 2009 Author Share Posted January 10, 2009 Lay the blame on Canada. Since when do they need 17.5 million unique postal codes? Link to comment
Gary in Aus Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 When I first saw this topic I wasn't sure if it was a baiting or trolling exercise so i stayed away from it. The television show that you mention and the next posters link are from a television series from Australia called the "Chasers War on Everything" and centres around the newsroom of CNNNN . Their US ambasador can also be seen on "Charles Firth in America" and the "how dumb are americans" segment has been a regular for many years. The following links are are further examples , however the one about the "Westboro Group" just isn't funny , a very sad state of affairs , that can't be lightened by Firth claiming the placard holder is gay and trying to pick him up . Caution - contains some bad language. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=p-vCl0U34KQ http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=A8SuCBHqXtQ&feature=related http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=BWCPAXgrm2U&feature=related http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=S8cN2pB3MCE&feature=related Link to comment
Hoover Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Has anyone seen the movie Idiocracy? Its a silly flick, basically about an average Joe who gets frozen and wakes up hundreds of years later and he is now the smartest man on the earth. There is one part of the movie pretty early on that has an "upscale" intellegent couple trying to have kids, and they talk about their struggles over time. Meanwhile it keeps overlaying the "hillbilly" and how he keeps knocking up his wife and the neighbor (etc, etc) and shows all of the kids that create the family free, which to helps to create a world where everyone is an idiot. Something about this starts to ring true. If you do not mind some foul language, its a pretty funny movie. Definitley not one for the kids or the easily offended, but it is a play on what will happen to this world if we keep up the "dumbing down" and "no competition" rules that get sensationalized in the media. Link to comment
marcopolo Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 On Friday's Tonight show, Jay Leno does his "Jaywalking" bit at Universal Studios. He asks visitors (mostly students) a series of questions related to 2008 events. He asked one young woman if she had heard of Somali Pirates. He gave her 3 possible answers, one of which was "sports team". Guess which one she chose? Link to comment
mswanton Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 Their online zip code widget doesn't handle alpha characters. What's up with that anyway? Tell me about it. I manage all my mother’s affairs (now from here) including her Medicare. The state of Iowa has told me they have no way what so ever to send mail (such as her monthly benefits report) to Canada. They say it’s just plain is not possible. Some agencies/businesses get around it by putting the alpha-numeric postal code somewhere in an address line field “Address 2” and 00000 the US postal code field, but they said not even that is not possible. And they don’t have any type of online reporting. Shish. The easy way around that is to get a post office box in the US and have the post office forward the mail to your address in Canada. They won't even charge you extra for postage. The down side is they will only do it for a year at a time. Link to comment
Silver Surfer/AKAButters Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Thanks! Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.